Bloch-Beilinson conjectures for Hecke characters and Eisenstein cohomology of Picard surfaces

Abstract

We consider certain families of Hecke characters $\varphi$ over a quadratic imaginary field $F$. According to the Bloch-Beilinson conjectures, the order of vanishing of the $L$-function $L(\varphi ,s)$ at the central point $s=-1$ should be equal to the dimension of the space of extensions of the Tate motive $\mathbb{Q}(1)$ by the motive associated with $\varphi$. In this article, we construct candidates for the corresponding extensions of Hodge structures, assuming that the sign of the functional equation of $L(\varphi ,s)$ is $-1$. This is accomplished through the cohomology of variations of Hodge structures over Picard modular surfaces associated with $F$ and Harder's theory of Eisenstein cohomology. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these extensions are naturally realized within certain biextensions. We outline a program to compute the biextension height and utilize it to establish the non-triviality of these extensions.

(v3) 47 pages, more improvements in exposition. Submitted